The present invention relates to a squeegee holder for use with screen printing machines. The present invention provides a versatile squeegee holder that is easily assembled and disassembled to accommodate a variety of squeegees of different types, hardnesses, and thicknesses, and to facilitate cleaning.
Indicia applied permanently to articles of clothing and other textiles have become very popular. Fanciful indicia, such as logos, slogans, college names, sports team names and sayings, are now commonplace. As a result, screen printing has become very popular. Large, commercial operations screen printing textiles are common today.
Indicia can be one or more colors. Typically, a screen printing machine has at least one station for each color employed. For example, a design incorporating two colors will have at least two printing stations, one for each color. A design employing eight colors will have at least eight stations. Each station generally includes a printing head, which supports a single screen, the ink to be used at that particular station and a mechanism for applying the ink to the textile. Each color is carried by a single screen. The textile to be screened travels from printing station to printing station by one of a number of methods, such as a chain or a rigid arm. The textile is usually carried by a metal pallet, pallet support, flat bed, or platen. Common printing machines include turret, oval and linear type machines. In addition to printing stations, there may also be curing stations to heat and set the inks placed on the textile or substrate.
In the screen printing process, a stencil screen is typically blocked (called “masked” in the industry) to embody the desired indicia and is then placed over the item to be printed. Ink of one color is then added to the screen surface and flooded onto the indicia by a flood bar of conventional design. The ink may be of any type well-known in the industry for screen printing. After the ink is flooded onto the screen, the ink is squeegeed through the screen interstices onto the item, leaving ink of the desired color where the interstices in the screen are unblocked. The squeegee is contained in a squeegee holder typically attached to a squeegee bar on the print head.
After the item is printed on, it is moved to a station where one or more operators transfer the article to a drying rack, conveyor surface leading to a dryer, or the like. This requires quick and deft handling by the operator because the cycling of the printing machine may print a shirt every four to six seconds. Further, as the articles are typically adhered to the platen with an adhesive, the article must be lifted at an angle to break the adhesive seal without smudging the print on the article.
Current squeegee holders generally require different holders for each type or hardness of squeegee and for the different types and colors of ink. Alternatively, assembly and disassembly for use with different inks or colors, or to clean the squeegee is a time-consuming task. The present invention provides a versatile squeegee holder that can be used with a variety of squeegees of different types, hardnesses and thicknesses, and provides for quick and easy assembly and attachment to a printing machine. Furthermore, the squeegee holder of the present invention permits quick and efficient disassembly and cleaning of the squeegee and holder to prevent contamination between different types or colors of ink.
Current squeegee holders also use screws to clamp the squeegee into its holder. This results in inevitable rippling effect in the squeegee caused by the screws. The present invention eliminates this rippling effect.
Of particular importance is that laws, rules and/or regulations require the thorough cleaning of squeegees. Contamination of inks is strictly prohibited. As such, there is a real need to ensure that squeegees and thoroughly and completely clean. The use of screws and other similar fasteners or clamping mechanisms have proven to difficult or extremely time consuming to clean. The present invention makes the squeegee and all of the parts associated with the holder very easy to separate and clean in standard cleaning assemblies. All parts are readily disassembled, exposed for thorough, complete cleaning, and assembled after cleaning.